There’s been a lot of talk at TPC Sawgrass about burying the hatchet. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan began the week by revealing that partnership talks with the PIF were continuing to advance while Jordan Spieth admitted that player directors have been “strongly encouraged” to meet with PIF head Yasir Al-Rumayyan. After three years of backstabbing, bickering and betrayal, all signs finally seem to be pointing toward an armistice.
But the bad blood hasn’t been let just yet. At least not entirely. Earlier in the week, Justin Thomas, in response to recent comments from LIV Golf’s Talor Gooch, noted that if he did win the 2024 Players Championship, he wouldn’t add an asterisk to his victory despite a field weakened by the exclusion of LIV Golf pros.
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“I know what you mean in terms of how World Ranking and guys that are or aren’t on the tour anymore,” Thomas said. “But that’s just kind of the reality that—and what they have put themselves in. I mean, I’m not going to have an asterisk next to my name for winning this because the field wasn’t too good, right.”
But if nothing goes unsaid in today’s day and age, even less goes unheard, and Thomas’ comments made it back Smash GC HQ—home of the salt king Brooks Koepka himself. When Thomas missed the cut at TPC Sawgrass on Friday evening, the Twitter account for the LIV Golf team couldn’t help but fire back.
— Smash GC (@SmashGC) March 16, 2024
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Get it? Scissors? As in cut? They even threw in an asterisk for good measure. Clearly it’s not going to be all smooth sailing from here. If and when these guys tee it up together again, there’s going to be a lot of hard feelings and wounded egos. It’s going to make your Thanksgiving dinner table look positively functional. But that’s OK. We’ll put up with just about anything as long as we don’t have to hear another freaking word about asterisks ever again.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
